Take a nap.

As long as it's not for too long or too close to bedtime, napping for a brief five to 25 minutes about 6 to 7 hours before you'd normally go to bed is a great way to recharge.

Going much longer than that means the post-sleep grogginess of "sleep inertia" will kick in, leaving you sluggish after you wake. Longer naps — of up to an hour — can sometimes be worth it, as long as you can afford the extra time to push through that groggy after-glow.

A 2008 study found that an afternoon nap was better than both getting more sleep at night and using caffeine to get over a midday slump. Other studies have shown that sleep improves learning, memory, and creative thinking, and even quick six-minute naps help people retain information better than if they hadn't slept at all. "Naps, in contrast to caffeine, have been shown to enhance not only alertness and attention, but also some forms of memory consolidation," University of California-San Diego researchers reported.

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Eat a healthy snack.

Low blood sugar can make you feel foggy and mentally lethargic. Large meals can have the same effect, because digestion takes energy (ahem, food coma). If you try to mask this effect with sugary foods and caffeine, you'll get a momentary high before a rapid crash.

Some of our favorite suggestions are avocado toast, peanut butter and celery, or carrots and hummus. Foods like spinach, beans, and lentils are great sources of iron, and iron deficiency is often a source of fatigue. Pairing those iron-rich foods with snacks high in vitamin C will help boost iron absorption.

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Drink water.

REUTERS/David Gray

Dehydration is a huge energy suck. It can cause fatigue, confusion, heart palpitations, and fainting, according to an American Chemical Society YouTube video.

This is because up to 60% of the human body is water. In addition to lubricating joints and flushing waste from the body, the bloodstream uses water to shuttle nutrients like oxygen and carbohydrates to various body parts, including the brain. A 2009 study by Tufts University researchers showed that even levels of mild dehydration — a loss of 1-2% of the water in your body — was associated with fatigue and confusion.

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Watch cute animals online.

Cats may be unusually lazy, but some people find that their furry antics provide not only a way to boost mood, but to combat sleepiness as well. (Videos of other cute animals could also do the trick, a 2012 study found.)

In a study published in June 2015, which surveyed 7,000 cat video enthusiasts, respondents said that watching internet cat videos raised their energy levels, heightened their feel-good emotions, and minimized their negative feelings, as reported by LiveScience.

The cat video fans said they felt "significantly lower levels of depletion ... and significantly higher energy levels ... after [viewing] than before." One important caveat: The study didn't measure whether the videos actually had those effects, only whether the participants felt that they did.

Increases in oxytocin, a neurotransmitter that heightens feelings of trust and emotion, and a decreases in cortisol, a brain chemical linked to stress, have been tied to our in-person interactions with animals; there's a chance similar effects could be at play with our reactions to cute-animal videos, but research is needed to investigate exactly what's going on.

Bright light also activates the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that controls our circadian rhythms. Those are what regulate sleep and wakefulness, setting a normal schedule for our bodies and minds.

Listen to music.

Grooving to your favorite song releases multiple feel-good chemicals in your brain that can give you a boost.

A study from 2011 showed that when people listened to music that gave them — as science writer Virginia Hughes put it— "goosebumps or chills" for 15 minutes, their brains overloaded with dopamine, a brain chemical that is involved in pleasure and reward. Your favorite tunes also activate other feel-good chemicals like serotonin and oxytocin.

Chew gum.

Keeping your mouth busy seems to keep your mind alert as well. Some studies have suggested that chewing gum might be an effective way to reduce daytime sleepiness, perhaps because the act of chewing somehow increases circulation and activates certain regions of the brain.

Recent studies have also demonstrated that chewing gum can help people concentrate on exams, reduce anxiety, and increase reading comprehension. Just make sure you're not smacking your gum too loudly if you're around coworkers.

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Dance or take a quick walk.

Treating yourself to a little jig or a quick run up and down your building's stairs is a great way to keep yourself awake. One study found that when participants exercised "during peak levels of sleepiness, subjective fatigue appeared partially alleviated."

Getting up and getting moving also gets your endorphins flowing. These feel-good neurotransmitters help to relieve stress and fatigue and increase feelings of euphoria.

And if you dance to your favorite tunes, you'll get the extra energy-boosting benefits of music.

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Look away from the screen.

Looking at one target for a long time, such as a computer screen, can hurt your eyes and make you struggle to keep them open.

As much as 95% of Americans are at risk for so-called computer vision syndrome — especially those who work in an office. All that screen time causes eye irritation and dryness, eye strain, blurred or double vision, headache, and shoulder and neck pain.

You can minimize the risks of damaging your eyes by reducing glare on your screen, upgrading your screen to an LCD, blinking frequently, correcting your posture, and gazing at a distant object every 20 minutes.